Some thoughts on The Smallest Park
A few thoughts on the lovely episode...
In not a very scientific order:
In not a very scientific order:
- Loved how Ann finally stood up to Leslie. Loved how Leslie accepted it. She knows she's like that. And she's like that more under stress, which she has been.
- Ben’s whole approach when he and Chris come to check out the citizen protest was fantastic. Great writing. He had to tell her she was being an asshole in front of Chris, for heaven’s sake. He was onto her little scheme. He knew exactly what she was up to. He'd told her he was done, he'd told her that it was basically for his mental health, and this is what she does. His look into the camera was, I think, unique, in that he looked so mad. Usually he’s just exasperated when he does that - I don’t know that he does that when he’s angry. Will have to check. But my point is, looking into the camera is usually something a character does when they want to distance themselves from the action around them. Or sometimes they are looking for a fellow-traveler (“dude, did you see that? Crazy, right?”). But this time... I feel like Ben was almost reporting her to the higher power.
- I've seen some discussion that maybe Ben owes Leslie an apology for the ribbon-cutting, and maybe the ribbon thing itself was a wee bit nasty, but it was the physical way to say THIS IS OVER, LESLIE. And for what he actually said? I don't think he owes her an apology, at all. She was so far over the line just about anything he said would have been understandable.
- Question: is Ann still a shipper when she goes to see Ben in his office? Even this conversation doesn’t quite read to me like the one you have with this guy that your BFF is never going to speak to again. Or maybe I’m just underestimating Ben and Ann’s friendship here. It just seemed kind of friendly, and she couldn’t resist praising Leslie to Ben, and sort of defending her to Ben. When in the conversations with Leslie, Ann was the one saying, “hey, just leave the poor man alone, doofus.” So I’m thinking Ann wasn’t able to compartmentalize her feelings about this either. These people are not so competent at breaking up in general, are they? Between Ben and Leslie, and Ann and Chris, breakups seem to be really tough for them.
- We got a clue how Ben felt with his smile in response to the text messages on Ann's phone, which was still important in this episode, because, honestly, you can fall out of love with someone if they treat you as badly as Leslie's been treating Ben. She's really being a jerk in that scene in his office. So I at least needed to see that little smile to know that she hadn't killed something off in this process. I was getting a bit worried about that, honestly. That she'd have to fight her way back in harder. (But no! Apparently not! His love was stronger than that! Hooray!)
- This is terribly, terribly superficial, but: I love that they both look their age. They both have the wrinkles that people have in their late 30s. And still they’re finding love, awww. But they aren't all ironed out like people often are on TV. If they wanted to light them not to have wrinkles, they could. They don't. It's great.
- Holy crap that red coat, I really want it. She looked great in it. One of the relatively rare items that you can imagine both Leslie Knope and Amy Poehler wearing. And me, apparently. Although I am neither petite nor blonde. (I have to say, these days I do often ask myself: would Amy Poehler wear this? before I pick out an outfit or buy clothes.)
- He also looked lovely in his coat, too. Indeed he did.
- I might just put my thoughts about the park scene into a fiction instead of here. I was for it, for the record. Very much pro the whole scene.
- OK, one thing about that scene: his voice. His wariness when she stopped him. Her voice when she was talking about how she missed him. Their voices are really underappreciated, I think. Listen to his voice during dinner in Road Trip. It's really great. And it's such a skill, it's so well done - listen to Adam Scott in an interview, and it's not how he talks naturally. It's not how he talked on Party Down, not exactly. Henry was more casual, more laidback. Ben is quieter, more precise, uses words so carefully.
- OH OH OH and speaking of precision in words, even when that clip came out I was struck: he says "How do you imagine we do this?" Imagine. It could have been more business-y words, like "propose" or "suggest" but it wasn't. It was "imagine." Which already told me his next move was not going to be to say "sorry, no, not signing up for that" or "let me think about it" - he was already letting the door be opened.
- OK, another thing: when he went in for the kiss, I had the sense that he was in such a hurry partly to take that nauseated look off her face and show her that she didn't need to feel so scared and nervous and alone for even another split second.
- OK, that may make it into the fiction if I ever write it.
- Other things: the three of them captivated by Women’s Studies was the best thing in the history of television. OK, no it wasn’t quite, but the mere notion that you can take something like that seriously was just... wow. On network TV. Wow.
- And: they kinda reminded us that Ron Swanson is a single man about town in this episode. Are they going to do something about this? I don't know if they'd go there with Ann and Ron really because of the dating rule if nothing else (been there, done that).
- Irritation: does Leslie now have two assistants? When not so long ago it was amazing they all kept their jobs at all? If I don't see Andy do some actual Parks department work at some point this season, Chris won't be the only crappy boss on the show, to be honest! It's goofy but come on... even Donna and Jerry had to do some paperwork this season, and I like to think Ben would have made them do it even if he weren't all broken-hearted at the time. WHICH HE ISN'T ANY MORE. Let's reflect on that, shall we?